"But I ain't kam enuff in yer." He moved to the door with a beckoning of his fateful hand.

"Outside a minit--EF you please." Stacey started, shrugged his shoulders, and half defiantly stepped beyond the threshold.

Cressy, unchanged in color or expression, lazily followed to the door.
"Wot," said McKinstry, slowly facing Stacey; "wot ef I refoose?
Wot ef I say I don't allow any man, or any bank, or any compromise, to take up my quo'r'lls?
Wot ef I say that low-down and mean as them Harrisons is, they don't begin to be ez mean, ez low-down, ez underhanded, ez sneakin' ez that yer compromise?
Wot ef I say that ef that's the kind o' hogwash that law and snivelization offers me for peace and quietness, I'll take the fightin', and the law-breakin', and the sheriff, and all h-ll for his posse instead?
Wot ef I say that ?" "It will only be my duty to repeat it," said Stacey, with an affected carelessness which, however, did not conceal his surprise and his discomfiture.

"It's no affair of mine." "Unless," said Cressy, assuming her old position against the lintel of the door, and smoothing the worn bear-skin that served as a mat with the toe of her slipper, "unless you've mixed it up with your other arbitration, you know." "Wot other arbitration ?" asked McKinstry suddenly, with murky eyes.
Stacey cast a rapid, half indignant glance at the young girl, who received it with her hands tucked behind her back, her lovely head bent submissively forward, and a prolonged little laugh.
"Oh nothing, Paw," she said, "only a little private foolishness betwixt me and the gentleman.

You'd admire to hear him talk, Paw--about other things than business.